My Way by Frank Sinatra Songfacts My Way by Frank Sinatra Songfacts Songfacts This originated as the French song called "Comme D'Habitude" (translation: "As Usual"), written by the composers Jacques Revaux and Gilles Thibault. They took it to the French pop star Claude Francois, who tweaked it a bit (earning a co-writer credit) and recorded the song in 1967, where it was a hit in parts of Europe. The French version tells the story of a man, living out the end of his marriage, love killed by the boredom of everyday life. Paul Anka discovered this song while visiting France and re-wrote the lyrics as "My Way" when he returned to New York. Anka says it was 3 a.m. on a rainy night when the words came to him. Anka, who was a very popular singer, pitched the song to Frank Sinatra, who recorded it on December 30, 1968. Anka's lyrics changed the meaning to be about a man looking back fondly on a life he lived on his own terms, and Sinatra's version became one of his signature songs.

This became Frank Sinatra's signature song, but he couldn't stand it, saying he "loathed" the song. In his later years, he described the song as "a Paul Anka pop hit which became a kind of national anthem." In a 2000 interview with the BBC show Hardtalk, Sinatra's daughter Tina said, "He always thought that song was self-serving and self-indulgent. He didn't like it. That song stuck and he couldn't get it off his shoe." A song of individuality and aspiration, there is a scientific explanation for why it has triggered such a strong emotional reaction despite the rather pedestrian lyrics and silly rhymes (losing/amusing, curtain/certain). The song starts with a rising 6th progression, which indicates striving. It builds in intensity and powers to a big finish, which Sinatra could really sell with his declaration, "I did it my way." In America, this was merely a modest hit on the charts, as it didn't jibe with the spirit of 1969. In the UK, however, it was a runaway hit, re-entering the charts six times between 1970-1971.

It holds the record for the longest stay on the chart. After dominating the American popular music charts in the '40s and early '50, Sinatra had some down years in the rock era, but still managed a few huge hits, with "Learnin' The Blues" (1955) and " Strangers in the Night " (1966) each going to #1 on the Hot 100. "My Way" became one of his more popular songs, but it had a very pedestrian placing on this chart, making just #27, which was lower than his previous Top 40 single, "Cycles" (#23 in 1968). "My Way," however, had tremendous staying power and became a concert showstopper. It was also Sinatra's last Top 40 hit in the US until 1980, when he returned with " New York, New York ." Sinatra probably did not have in mind the red velvet drapes of a crematorium when he sang about facing his final curtain. However, in 2005 a survey by Co-Operative Funeralcare put this tune at the top of songs most requested at funerals in the UK.

Spokesman Phil Edwards said: "It has that timeless appeal – the words sum up what so many people feel about their lives and how they would like their loved ones to remember them." Some of the many artists to record this song include Aretha Franklin, Tom Jones , Dionne Warwick, and Andy Williams. The Welsh singer Dorothy Squires released a version shortly after Sinatra that was also a hit in the UK and re-entered the chart there twice. Toward the end of his career, Elvis added this to his concert repertoire. After his death in 1977, a live version was released as a single, going to #22 in the US and #9 in the UK. The Sex Pistols recorded a Punk version in 1979 with their bass player Sid Vicious on lead vocals (lead singer Johnny Rotten had left the band). Their version went to #6 in the UK and was used over the closing credits of the movie Goodfellas. The song appeared on the Sex Pistols' album The Great Rock 'N' Roll Swindle. Sid Vicious died before the album was released.

Anton La Vey, founder of the Church of Satan, complimented Sid Vicious' cover of the song in his biography The Secret Life of a Satanist . >> Suggestion credit: Diane - Ventura, CA This is a very popular Karaoke song, but one you should probably avoid in The Philippines. As detailed in a February 6, 2010 article in the New York Times, many violent incidents have taken place following Karaoke performances of "My Way." Karaoke is very popular in that country, and there is a certain etiquette which tends to break down when patrons choose this song, sometimes resulting in fights that can escalate quickly. The bravado of the song may have something to do with it, but whatever the cause, most Filipinos will avoid the song, and many bars don't offer it on their playlists. According to Paul Anka, he wrote the English version of this song after having dinner with Frank Sinatra, who told his dinner companions that he was quitting the business (Anka was playing many of the same nightclubs, which is how he ended up in Sinatra's circle).

In an effort to write Sinatra a hit, he composed this song specifically for Frank, writing a lyric with lines filled with things he figured the singer would say, playing up his tough guy image with phrases like "I ate it up and spit it out" and "I'll state my case, of which I'm certain." The song was a favorite of former Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic. He often played it in his cell at a loud volume during his trial for crimes against humanity in 2002. The Gipsy Kings recorded a Spanish version of the song called "A Mi Manera." Before Paul Anka wrote the English lyrics, a young David Bowie took a shot at writing them but couldn't come up with anything he was happy with. "My Way" is licensed sparingly, especially the Sinatra version.

It was used in the 2006 episode of The Sopranos titled "Moe n' Joe," and also in a 2014 episode of Mad Men called "The Strategy." The Mad Men episode takes place around the time the song was released and plays a specific role in the plot, with Don Draper hearing the song, which is playing on the radio, as some kind of sign to Peggy Olsen. The Sex Pistols version has been used in some high-profile productions as well: it was used in episodes of The Simpsons (2010) and Californication (2014), and in the movie Goodfellas (1990). Former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder requested "My Way" for his final send-off (Zapfenstreich in German) prior to the inauguration of Angela Merkel. More than seven million television viewers watched tears well up in his eyes as a military band saw him off with a version of this song. Paul Anka recorded a version of this shortly after Sinatra's release.

He also recorded it as a duet four different times - with Gabriel Byrne for the movie Mad Dog Time (1996), with Julio Iglesias as the Spanish rendition "a Mi Manera" (1998), with Jon Bon Jovi (2007), and with the Canadian singer Garou (2013). Because this song is so strongly associated with Sinatra, many people assume the singer wrote it. In a Songfacts interview, Frank Sinatra Enterprises Vice President Charles Pignone chalks this up to his artistry. "A lot of people, because Frank was so convincing in what he sang, thought he had his hand in writing a lot of these songs," he says. On Sinatra's distaste for the song, Pigone adds: "I don't think he hated it as much as he disliked it - I don't think he hated any of these songs. I just think he probably may have gotten tired of people yelling for it and singing of it. It's a fan favorite, but I wouldn't say it was a Sinatra favorite." Lou Levy took over as pianist for this song when Sinatra regular Bill Miller cut his hand on a shard of glass. Miller did, however, conduct the orchestra for the recording.

Paul Anka - Music on Google Play Paul Anka About the artist Paul Albert Anka, OC is a Canadian-American singer, songwriter, and actor. Anka became famous during the late 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s with hit songs like "Diana", "Lonely Boy", "Put Your Head on My Shoulder", and " Having My Baby". He wrote such well-known music as the theme for The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson and one of Tom Jones's biggest hits, "She's a Lady", as well as the English lyrics for Frank Sinatra's signature song, "My Way", which has been covered by many including Elvis Presley. He was inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame in 2005. In 1983, he co-wrote the song "I Never Heard" with Michael Jackson. It was retitled and released in 2009 under the name "This Is It". An additional song that Jackson co-wrote with Anka from this 1983 session, "Love Never Felt So Good", was since discovered and was released on Jackson's posthumous album Xscape in 2014.

The song was also released by Johnny Mathis in 1984. Anka became a naturalized US citizen in 1990. 1 $9.49 Rock Swings is an album by Paul Anka. Recorded in November 2004 and released on May 31, 2005 in Canada and June 7, 2005 in the United States, it contains swing jazz covers of popular rock and pop s... 1 Neil Sedaka 0 Brooklyn-native Neil Sedaka began his prolific career as one of the original creators of the "Brill Building" sound and has sold over 60 million records worldwide. He has been inducted into the Son... 0 Connie Francis 0 Connie Francis is an American pop singer and top-charting female vocalist of the late 1950s and early 1960s. Although her chart success waned in the second half of the 1960s, Francis remained a top... 0 Pat Boone 0 Charles Eugene "Pat" Boone is an American singer, composer, actor, writer, television personality, motivational speaker, and spokesman. He was a successful pop singer in the United States during th...

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He performed in a range of musical genres, ... 0 Bobby Vee 0 Robert Thomas Velline, known professionally as Bobby Vee, was an American pop singer who was a teen idol in the early 1960s. According to Billboard magazine, he had thirty-eight Hot 100 chart hits,... 0 Johnny Tillotson 0 Johnny Tillotson is an American singer and songwriter. He enjoyed his greatest success in the early 1960s, when he scored nine top-ten hits on the pop, country and adult contemporary Billboard char... 0 Al Martino 0 Al Martino was an American singer and actor. He had his greatest success as a singer between the early 1950s and mid-1970s, being described as "one of the great Italian American pop crooners", and ... 0 Brian Hyland 0 Brian Hyland is an American pop recording artist who was particularly successful during the early 1960s. He continued recording into the 1970s. Allmusic journalist Jason Ankeny states, "Hyland's pu... 0 Paul Anka - YouTube Paul Anka Want to watch this again later?

Sign in to add this video to a playlist. Need to report the video? Sign in to report inappropriate content. Rating is available when the video has been rented. This feature is not available right now. Please try again later. Published on May 5, 2014 Paul Anka returns to The Hanover Theatre for the Performing Arts in Worcester, MA on Sunday, November 9 at 7PM. Singer, songwriter, and actor, Paul Anka became famous in the late 1950s, 60s, and 70s with hit songs like "Diana," "Lonely Boy," and "Put Your Head on My Shoulder." In addition to his illustrious singing career, Anka wrote the theme music for The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, Tom Jones' "She's a Lady," the English lyrics for Frank Sinatra's signature song "My Way," and Michael Jackson's posthumous hit "This Is It." Anka is the only artist in history to have a record on Billboard's Top 50 chart for seven consecutive decades, and has cemented his places as one of the most prolific and versatile singer/songwriters of any generation.

Visit TheHanoverTheatre.org to learn more. Category Paul Anka | Biography & History | AllMusic google+ Artist Biography by John Bush One of the biggest teen idols of the late '50s, Paul Anka moved to the adult sphere several years later and became a successful performer, songwriter, music businessman, and recording artist, remaining so well into the new millennium. Born in Ottawa, Ontario, in 1941 to parents of Lebanese Christian descent who owned a local restaurant, Anka proved a child prodigy, beginning his show business life at the age of 12 as an impressionist. By the age of 14, he was stealing the family car to drive to amateur singing contests in nearby Hull, Quebec, and writing his own songs. His first single, "I Confess," appeared on the Riviera subsidiary of Jules and Joe Bihari 's RPM label. While on a trip to New York with a group of friends who sang as the Rover Boys , Anka gained an audition with ABC producer Don Costa , and sang his own composition, "Diana," an ode to a former babysitter.

Costa liked what he heard, recorded the teenager, and watched as the single hit number one on both sides of the Atlantic later in 1957, eventually selling a reported ten million copies worldwide. Anka placed four songs in the Top 20 a year later, including "You Are My Destiny" and "Crazy Love," tempering the all-out rebellion of rock & roll with songs that questioned parental authority rather than promoting outright disobedience. He wrote one of Buddy Holly 's last hits, "It Doesn't Matter Anymore," and moved into movies with Let's Rock and Girls Town. The latter film spawned his biggest American hit, "Lonely Boy," just the first in a string of 1959 chart successes including "Put Your Head on My Shoulder," "It's Time to Cry," and "Puppy Love" (written for old flame Annette Funicello , and later a hit for Donny Osmond as well).

By 1961, when the teen idol craze began to cool off, Anka (a millionaire while still a minor) could boast of the over 125 compositions under his belt, his own record label (Spanka), and the recognition of being behind the second-best-selling single of all time (only "White Christmas" had sold more copies than "Diana"). Instead of resting on his laurels, Anka took on the adult market. First, he groomed a solo act and got bookings into that haven for sophisticates, the Copacabana. Anka next moved to RCA and, in yet another shrewd business move, bought the rights to his old masters and made a fortune on reissues alone. He diversified his career by appearing in several more movie roles (including the 1962 drama The Longest Day, for which he provided the title song). One of the first pop singers to do shows in Las Vegas, he also hosted television variety shows like Hullabaloo, The Midnight Special, and Spotlite, and moved on to foreign audiences in Asia and Europe (where he found his wife, Parisian model Anne de Zogheb).

He wrote the theme to The Tonight Show (aired every weeknight for almost 30 years), rewrote the French lyrics to the song "Comme d'Habitude" for one of Frank Sinatra 's most famous later songs, "My Way," and also wrote Tom Jones ' biggest hit, "She's a Lady." Anka also branched out in the recording studio, recording theme albums such as Excitement on Park Avenue and Strictly Nashville . Although he had hit the Top 40 only once since 1963, Anka stormed the number one slot in 1974 with "(You're) Having My Baby," a duet recorded in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, with his singing protégée, Odia Coates . The duo's next two singles, "One Man Woman/One Woman Man" and "I Don't Like to Sleep Alone," both hit the Top Ten (his 1974 LP Anka reached gold), and his 1975 solo single, "Times of Your Life," reached number seven. Anka charted into the early '80s, continuing his many casino and international appearances while recording sparingly but continually.

Concert recordings and compilations constituted the bulk of his '80s and '90s discography, although he also entered the studio, most notably on the 2005 Verve date Rock Swings , a collection of contemporary standards. Its large success prompted a follow-up (of sorts), Classic Songs: My Way , from 2007, which included more contemporary standards as well as duets with Michael Bublé and Jon Bon Jovi . Anka returned in 2011 with an album of Christmas songs, Songs of December , backed by a full orchestra. In 2013, Anka delivered the album Duets as a tie-in to his autobiography, My Way. The album featured Anka alongside a bevy of duet partners including Michael Bublé , Celine Dion , Chris Botti , and others. What is a brief summary of Paul Anka's life? | Reference.com What is a brief summary of Paul Anka's life? A: Quick Answer Paul Anka, born July 30, 1941, in Ottawa, Canada, is a singer, songwriter and performer whose songs became hits for singers Tom Jones, Frank Sinatra and others.

His first song, “Diana,” became the No. 1 song in the world, selling more than 20 million copies when Anka was just 16 years old. Full Answer Anka came to Los Angeles, California, at the age of 15, with the goal of becoming a famous singer. One year later, he decided to try to launch his career in New York, which is where he met Don Costa, an executive for ABC/Paramount Records. Costa signed Anka up on the label and soon after released “Diana,” making Anka a teen heartthrob. Anka followed up his first hit record with “Put Your Head On My Shoulder” and “Lonely Boy.” When musical interests shifted toward rock-and-roll, Anka reinvented himself, becoming a songwriter and going on to write the theme song for “The Tonight Show,” a song which earned him up to $900,000 in royalties per year. He wrote “She’s a Lady” for Tom Jones, which became Jones’ biggest hit. He also wrote “My Way” for Frank Sinatra.

Over his lifetime, Anka wrote around 900 songs, with hits that spanned the Top 50 over the course of five decades. Anka married Puerto Rican model Anne de Zogheb in 1963. The pair had five daughters and were together for 37 years prior to divorcing. After the divorce, Anka married and had a son with Swedish model and actress Anna Aberg. How Sinatra did it My Way - via a French pop star and a Canadian lounge act | Music | The Guardian Vinyl word How Sinatra did it My Way - via a French pop star and a Canadian lounge act Joe Queenan on the story behind the iconic song Frank grew to hate.

After you read today's tawdry tale, go vote on what to name Queenan's new weekly feature Hat-wearing scat legend Frank Sinatra Thursday 5 July 2007 12.54 EDT First published on Thursday 5 July 2007 12.54 EDT Share on Messenger Close Few of the nitwits who insist that the song My Way be played at their funerals are aware that this hymn to self-absorption originated with a flamboyant French pop singer who died in his bathtub while changing a light bulb. The long and winding road that would culminate in Frank Sinatra's eternal identification with a song he personally despised begins in the unassuming Egyptian town of Ismailia, where Claude Francois was born in February 1939. Fleeing an inhospitable environment after the Suez Crisis erupted in 1956, Francois made his way to France. There he would become a gigantic star, first singing ghastly pop songs, then ghastly disco songs.

Always trying to ride the crest of a wave, always 9.7 months behind the latest Anglo-American trend, always sporting ridiculous hair and absurd clothing, Francois was backed by a bouncy dance troupe called The Clodettes. If it is possible to imagine a surrealistic Gallic Rod Stewart - not that anyone would want to - Francois was it. Immensely popular, but always a bit of a joke, Francois had a huge hit with a song he did not write called Dis-lui, which later resurfaced in the United States as the chart-buster Feelings. Feelings has been cited by numerous war crimes tribunals as the worst song ever written, or at least the worst song ever written that was not written by Billy Joel, and Dis-lui is not much better. Ironically, Francois, famous for recording songs that became even more famous outside France when they were covered by English-speaking artists, originally became famous by recording appalling covers of such famous American cornball classics as If I Had a Hammer. Comme d'habitude, which would become My Way, was written by Francois and two other Frenchmen after a heartbroken Francois broke up with the pop singer France Gall.

Officially, Gilles Thibault gets credit for the lyrics, and Jacques Revaux for the music. So precisely what Francois added to the creative process remains unclear. The song helped the mercurial Franco-Egyptian tighten his ties with that enormous segment of the French public that revels in this sort of intensely autobiographical material, but then he went and electrocuted himself, and that was the end of that. Comme d'habitude morphed into My Way after Paul Anka, the seasoned Canadian lounge act, heard it on a trip to Paris. A one-time teen idol, whose 1958 recording of Diana sold 10 million records, Anka wrote the lyrics to My Way specifically with Sinatra in mind. According to the composer, whose other hits included Lonely Boy, Puppy Love and Put Your Head on My Shoulder, he knocked off the song in a single late-night session during a driving rainstorm.

Amazingly, this is exactly the same way Johannes Brahms used to describe the birth of his one genuinely peerless choral masterpiece: "I couldn't sleep, I poured myself a schnapps, I sat down at the piano, and bingo: Eines Deutsches Requiem!" Anka, who would later write Tom Jones' camp classic She's a Lady, immediately contacted Sinatra's musical director, who had helped the obsequious Ottawan get his career off the ground years earlier. Smitten, Sinatra took less than half an hour to commit the song to vinyl, very nearly eclipsing the Troggs' record of 20 minutes with Wild Thing . Curiously, given its iconic stature, the album My Way never made it into the Billboard Top 10, and not long after the release of what sounded like his swan song at the time, Sinatra briefly retired from show business. What made My Way so affecting was that Frank Sinatra actually possessed the moral authority to sing it.

A hoodlum, a boxer, a heartthrob, a has-been, a comeback kid, a titan, a has-been once again, and finally a living legend back on top for good, Sinatra had actually lived the kind of life described in the song, having taken the blows and done it his way. Sid Vicious, by contrast, had also taken the blows, but for the most part he had done it his manager's way. Yet, amazingly, Sinatra hated the song, ostensibly because it was pompous and smarmy and self-indulgent, but also because he was probably aware that it would ultimately degenerate into the kind of graveside cabaret material that make mourners wish the stiff was still breathing. As recently as two years ago, My Way was the most popular number played at British funerals, but since then it has ceded pride of place to James Blunt's Goodbye My Lover. This is yet another reason to avoid befriending people who look like they might kick the bucket before you get a chance to vet their iPods. Still very much alive, Anka recently released an album of rock songs that includes Nirvana's Smells Like Teen Spirit. Nobody knows why.

Still very much dead, Claude Francois had a Parisian square named in his honor in 2000, proving that beneath the veneer of Proustian sophistication that the French like to present to the world beats the heart of a slob. 1000+ images about paul anka on Pinterest | The doobie brothers, Frankie avalon and American bandstand Forward One of the biggest teen idols of the late '50s, Paul Anka moved to the adult sphere several years later and became a successful performer, songwriter, music businessman, and recording artist. Born in Ottawa, Ontario in 1941 to parents of Lebanese Christian descent who owned a local restaurant, Anka proved a child prodigy, beginning his show-business life at the age of 12 as an impressionist. By the age of 14, he stole the family car to drive to singing contests. See More Frank Sinatra | Rolling Stone artists > F > Frank Sinatra > Bio Frank Sinatra Bio Baritone Frank Sinatra was indisputably the 20th century's greatest singer of popular song.

Though influenced by Bing Crosby's crooning, and by learning from trombonist Tommy Dorsey's breath control and blues singer Billie Holiday's rhythmic swing, Frank Sinatra mainstreamed the concept of singing colloquially, treating lyrics as personal statements and handling melodies with the ease of a jazz improviser. His best work is standards —Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern, and the Gershwins —but Sinatra, despite his 1957 denunciation of rock & roll as degenerate, has recorded songs by the likes of Stevie Wonder, George Harrison, Jimmy Webb, and Billy Joel. Not only did his freely interpretive approach pave the way for the idiosyncrasies of rock singing, but with his character a mix of tough-guy cool and romantic vulnerability, he became the first true pop idol, a superstar who through his music established a persona audiences found compelling and true. Sinatra, an only child of a family with Sicilian roots, grew up in Hoboken, and sang in the glee club of Demarest High School. His break came in 1937, when he and three instrumentalists, billed as the Hoboken Four, won on the Major Bowes Original Amateur Hour.

After some touring, the group disbanded. Harry James signed Sinatra to sing with his orchestra, and on July 13, 1939, two weeks after his debut as a big-band vocalist at the Hippodrome Theatre in Baltimore, Sinatra cut his first disc, "From the Bottom of My Heart," with the orchestra. Of the 10 sides he recorded with them, the biggest seller, "All or Nothing at All," sold just over 8,000 copies upon release. In 1943 it was rereleased and became the first of Sinatra's many million-sellers, hitting #2 on the chart. In 1940 Tommy Dorsey's lead singer, Jack Leonard, quit and Sinatra began a two-year stay with the trombonist. During those years, the band consistently hit the Top 10 (15 entries in 1940–41, including their first, the #1 hit "I'll Never Smile Again"). His radio work with Dorsey was the springboard for Sinatra's solo career.

During the war years, Sinatra, married at the time to his childhood sweetheart, Nancy, sang love songs to his mostly female audiences, notably on Lucky Strike's Hit Parade and at New York's original Paramount Theatre. Between 1943 and 1946 he had 17 Top 10 chart singles, and earned the sobriquets "The Voice" and "The Sultan of Swoon." With the GIs back in the U.S., public taste shifted away from these songs, and Sinatra's popularity waned. At Columbia, producer Mitch Miller burdened Sinatra with novelty songs (washboard accompaniment on one, barking dogs on another), and his sales slipped to an average of 30,000 per record. In the early '50s, he was dropped by Columbia and by his talent agent and lost his MGM motion picture contract. To regain his popularity, he begged to be cast as Maggio in the film From Here to Eternity. His first nonsinging role, it won him a 1953 Oscar and a return to the limelight.

(His film debut had been with the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra in 1941's Las Vegas Nights.) The fledgling Capitol Records signed him in 1953 and, with ex-Dorsey trombonist and arranger Nelson Riddle, Sinatra moved into the next phase of his recording career with a new emphasis: saloon ballads and sophisticated swing tunes. With Capitol, he concentrated on albums, although he again charted in the singles Top 10, notably with "Young at Heart" (#2, 1954), "Learnin' the Blues" (#1, 1955), "Hey! Jealous Lover" (#3, 1956), "All the Way" (#2, 1957), and "Witchcraft" (#6, 1958). His best albums of the period were arranged by Riddle, Billy May, or Gordon Jenkins. Through the early '50s, during which he was married to film actress Ava Gardner, having left Nancy in 1950, Sinatra became a movie star. He won especially high praise for his portrayal of a drug addict in The Man With the Golden Arm (1955).

Beginning in 1959, two years after he divorced Gardner, his singles failed to hit the Top 30, and in 1961 Sinatra left Capitol to establish his own company, Reprise. (In 1963 he sold Reprise to Warner Bros. and became a vice president and consultant of Warner Bros. Picture Corp.) Sinatra decided to try again to become a Top 40 singles artist. "The Second Time Around" hit #50 in 1961; subsequent releases charted lower. But in the mid-'60s he recouped. He was the triumphant headliner of the final evening of the 1965 Newport Jazz Festival in a 20-song set accompanied by Count Basie's orchestra, conducted by Quincy Jones. His 1965 Thanksgiving TV special, Frank Sinatra: A Man and His Music, a review of his 25-year career, won an Emmy and set the precedent for numerous other TV specials, including one each in the next four years. That year he also picked up a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

In 1966–67 he charted three of his biggest Top 10 hits: "Strangers in the Night" (#1, 1966), "That's Life" (#4, 1966), and a duet with daughter Nancy, "Somethin' Stupid" (#1, 1967). In the 1960s he made his Las Vegas debut at the Sands and continued for years as a main attraction at Caesars Palace. Leader of the notorious "Rat Pack," including Sammy Davis Jr., Dean Martin, Peter Lawford, and Joey Bishop, he came to epitomize the hard-drinking, blonde-chasing swinger; a stout Democrat who'd named his son after Franklin D. Roosevelt, he also strongly supported John F. Kennedy's presidential bid. Married from 1966 to 1968 to actress Mia Farrow, he began reconciling with youth culture, covering songs, with indifferent success, by younger writers. In 1968 he recorded "My Way," a French song to which Paul Anka wrote new English lyrics. A modest U.S.

hit (#27), it was an overwhelming smash in the U.K., staying in the Top 50 an unprecedented 122 weeks. (Sex Pistol Sid Vicious later recorded a sarcastic version.) In 1970 Sinatra announced his retirement and was honored with a gala farewell on June 13, 1971, at the L.A. Music Center. He reversed that decision in 1973 with the release of Ol' Blue Eyes Is Back (#13), a TV special of the same name, and a performance at the Nixon White House (over the years, Sinatra's politics had become markedly conservative; in 1985, he would produce Ronald Reagan's inaugural gala). In 1974 he mounted an eight-city, 13-date sold-out U.S. tour and performed in Japan and Australia. In Australia he aggravated the paparazzi with his antijournalist harangues: Through the years he referred to the males as parasites, and the females as everything from "a buck-and-a-half hooker" to "two-dollar broads." Married to Zeppo Marx's widow, Barbara, in 1976, however, he appeared to mellow somewhat.

In the mid-'70s Sinatra's career slowed down, but in mid-1980, after a five-year recording hiatus, he released Trilogy (#17),which included a version of "Theme From New York, New York" (#32) that the city fervently adopted. In the 1980s Sinatra continued to perform sold-out concerts in major halls, to star in movies and TV specials, and to spark controversy for his business and political associations. (His 1972 appearances before the House Select Committee on Crime investigating criminal infiltration into horse racing were front-page news.) With 1981's She Shot Me Down (#52) and 1984's L.A. Is My Lady (#58) he appeared to have ended his recording career. In 1985, he was accorded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian award. In 1993, however, he enjoyed a renaissance with Duets debuting at #2. Featuring top singers —among them Aretha Franklin, Bono, Tony Bennett, Liza Minnelli, and Luther Vandross (some recording their parts via telephone) —it gained Sinatra new young fans.

Still touring, with the aid of TelePrompTers, at 78, he collapsed onstage in Virginia in 1994 but soon recovered; days earlier, when presented with a special "Legend" award at the Grammy Awards ceremony —with an over-the-top intro by Bono —he had waxed so emotional that his own handlers requested that television cameras cut away from his acceptance speech. Rumors abounded about Sinatra's health, but he insisted on resuming his tour. By year's end, the sequel Duets II was issued, featuring Chrissie Hynde, Linda Ronstadt, and Willie Nelson, among others. A 1983 honoree at the Kennedy Center Honors, Sinatra was involved for many years in charitable work, particularly in fundraising for multiple sclerosis, chronically ill children, and awareness of child abuse. Frank Sinatra died of a heart attack on May 14, 1998, in L.A. That year, his FBI dossier, 1,275 pages covering 50 years of surveillance, was released. The document revealed no shocking secrets. This biography originally appeared in The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll (Simon & Schuster, 2001).

Paul Anka MIDI Files Backing Tracks | Hit Trax ($ £ €) after sign in Paul Anka Additional Artist Info Paul Anka MIDI Files, MIDI Karaoke MP3 professional backing tracks and Lyrics produced by Hit Trax. Click on any title to view song details like tempo, key, BPM, length and a preview Paul Anka video. View and print Paul Anka song lyrics which include MIDI Instrument track listing (* where available) all from the song page. Popular Paul Anka MIDI & MP3 Backing Tracks include: Put Your Head On My Shoulder Diana Puppy Love Dance On Little Girl Is your favourite Paul Anka MIDI Karaoke File or MP3 backing track missing? If you need a new backing track that’s unavailable at the current time, click in the Contact button at the top of the page and request the backing track. If the song is current and in the charts, chances are we may produce it at normal catalogue prices. For all other songs, our team of in house producers can custom make professional backing tracks starting at a low price of US$150.00 for a standard 3 to 4 minute pop song. All Paul Anka song files are AMCOS Licensed and royalty paid.

© 2000 - 2017 Hit Trax (Australia, USA, UK, Canada and Europe). DIRECTORY Paul Anka | American singer and songwriter | Britannica.com American singer and songwriter Alternative Title: Paul Albert Anka Paul Anka Gwen Stefani Paul Anka, in full Paul Albert Anka (born July 30, 1941, Ottawa , Ontario , Canada ), Canadian-born American singer and songwriter whose wholesome pop songs first achieved wide popularity in the late 1950s and whose diverse songwriting talents produced hits for such artists as Tom Jones and Michael Jackson . Anka was born to Lebanese and Syrian parents who had immigrated to Canada and were the owners of an Ottawa restaurant that was popular with local entertainers. He taught himself to play guitar and piano as a teen and formed a vocal group called the Bobbysoxers with friends that performed locally in Ottawa. In 1957 Anka traveled to New York , hoping to get his music recorded. He was quickly offered a recording contract after performing an original song , “ ” for an ABC/Paramount Records executive. “ Diana ” would go on to become a hit, eventually selling more than 20 million copies.

Anka continued his success with a string of hits, including “ Lonely Boy Put Your Head on My Shoulder ” (1959), and “ Puppy Love ” (1960), which was inspired by his girlfriend Annette Funicello . Anka acted in a string of movies aimed at teenage audiences, including Girls Town (1959) and Look in Any Window (1961). He played a U.S. Army Ranger in the war film The Longest Day (1962), for which he also wrote the theme music. As young people’s taste in popular music began to turn toward rock and roll and away from the pop music he was known for, Anka began to market himself to more mature audiences. He performed on the nightclub circuit—at the Copacabana in New York, the Sands in Las Vegas , and the Coconut Grove in Los Angeles . Anka remained a prolific songwriter and penned the theme song for The Tonight Show , hosted by Johnny Carson , as well as classic hits for other artists, including the lyrics for the Frank Sinatra hit “ My Way ” (1969) and Tom Jones’s “ She’s a Lady ” (1971).

In 1974 Anka again found success as a performer with a duet performed with Odia Coates, “ ” which proved controversial with both sides of the abortion debate. He had a hit in 1983 with “ Hold Me ’Til the Mornin’ Comes, ” a duet with Peter Cetera. Anka toured and continued to release compilations and concert recordings throughout the 1980s and ’90s. A successful Spanish-language album, Amigos, was released in 1996. Anka’s album A Body of Work (1998) included newly composed and remade songs, performed as solos or as duets with such artists as Céline Dion and Patti LaBelle. With the albums Rock Swings (2005) and Classic Songs: My Way (2007), Anka reimagined hit songs originally performed by other artists, ranging from Cyndi Lauper’s “ Time After Time ” to Nirvana ’s “ Smells like Teen Spirit. ” The versatility of Anka’s musical range was demonstrated in 2009 with the success of Michael Jackson’s posthumous “ This Is It,

Question: Which singer wrote the hit songs 'My Way' for Frank Sinatra and 'She's A Lady' for Tom Jones?
Answer: PAUL ANKA